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| What Are They? 


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CHARLES R. WATSON 


President 


The American University at Cairo 


Land Title Building 
Philadelphia 








Our Religious Policies 


What Are They? 


We have been praised in public addresses 
because we do not teach religion and we 
have been damned because we do. We have 
lost a number of Moslem students because 
their parents were apprehensive about the 
strong Christian character of our institution 
and for a month we were found worthy of 
front page attack in a fire eating Cairo news- 
paper because we were propagandists of 
Christianity. 


“You don’t proselytize, do your” is the 
blunt question of many a tourist who visits 
the American University at Cairo. “I don’t 
suppose you dare attempt anything of relig- 
ious instruction?” is the form of the inquiry 
which others put to us who have sensed the 
inflammable character of religious disputes 
in the Moslem world. Where do we stand? 
What is our religious policy? 


First of all, may | observe that the discuss- 
ion of the subject calls for much definition 
of terms. What is “teaching religion’: 
What do we mean by “Christianity” any- 
howr Judging by those who visit us, there 
are more than 57 varieties. Some of these 
we would neither endorse nor consider worth 
imparting to others. Then that horrid word 


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, 


“proselytize,” what does it mean? Person- 
ally I have discarded it for any good sig- 
nificance. The use of it in the King James 
version (Matthew XXIII, 15) attaches to 
it the meaning of gaining adherents by 
ignoble methods of persuasion and without 
sincere conviction on their part. That sort 
of business may do for politics but it ought 
to have no place in religion. This suggests 
the first feature of our policy. 


“1. In our religious policy, we put the 
emphasis on content and not on label. If 
we can get the Moslem lad to accept the con- 
tent of Christianity, Christ’s revelation of 
God, Christ’s invitation to fellowship with 
God, Christ’s way of living, Christ’s ideals 
of uprightness and _ personal morality, 
Christ’s love of others and sacrificial service, 
—we are glad. If the content of Chris- 
tianity is in his life, the label will take care 
of itself. Some day, some one will come 
along and give him a name that will distin- 
guish his brand of life from the ordinary 
brand of a Moslem world. Christians were 
not any less Christians before they were 
called Christians at Antioch. \t is a question 
whether they were any more so afterward. 
At any rate we are supremely interested in 
content, not in labels, though we believe in 
right labels too. 


2. Further, in our religious approach, we 
try to emphasize open mindedness and fair- 
ness. [he very word University commits 
us to that and we try to live up to it. 


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Is there good in Islam (and there is), we 
try to recognize it. Is it conceivable that 
the loving Heavenly Father Whom _ Jesus 
revealed to us would leave whole blocks of 
humanity across whole centuries of time 
without a scintilla of spiritual light and 
comfort? Our jealousy for His goodness 
forbids us to believe that. And if there 
are values there, it is our business to find 
them and appraise them. But not to over- 
appraise them either. Likewise, are there 
imperfections in Christendom, in its social 
and economic and international order; we 
do not hesitate to criticize. We must cul- 
tivate a spirit of fairness and establish a 
reputation for open mindedness. This is 
Christian. It is also the price of any in- 
fluence with Moslem youth. 


3. Still more important is our emphasis 
on reality. A formal Christianity, centuries 
old, has interpenetrated Islam and has con- 
veyed seemingly ineradicable misconceptions 
in the Moslem mind as to the moral and 
spiritual content of Christianty. Contact with 
the West has not helped matters. Dr. John 
R. Mott once remarked that the worst condi- 
tions will be found to prevail where two 
civilizations meet. That is where our lot 
is cast. Almost every religious term and 
adjective bears a false meaning: Christian, 
holy, church, prayer, Bible, God, Christ, 
Holy Spirit, sinless, sinful, love, woman, 
philanthropy, service,—these all bear mean- 
ings that we would not countenance. Our 


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supreme problem is religious and moral 
reality. And this leads to another feature 
of our religious policy. 


4. Because of unreality, there 1s no effec- 
tive way of “getting our meaning across” 
apart from action. Christian honesty be- 
comes real when you play a game of basket- 
ball with it, very real when a team loses be- 
cause of it. Christian standards of life be- 
came very real when the basket-ball team 
some years ago sat in judgment over mem- 
bers who drank after playing a game in an- 
other city, and voted punishment even more 
severe than the faculty ultimately felt -was 
required. A boy from Mecca said to one of 
the staff after a health service trip to the 
villages, “Sir, you often spoke in Assembly 
about the joy of serving others, but | never 
knew what you meant until today.” Religion 
in action interprets what we mean. Mere 
statement is not enough. One has to sit up 
nights to discover ways of putting Christian 
ideas and ideals into action. But it has to 
be done to get the message across. 


5. Another plank in our religious policy 
is to maintain a spirit of voluntariness about 
religion. Religious browbeating has been 
too much the prevailing attitude in the 
religious world of the Near East. Perhaps 
the “holy” wars of Islam and the so-called 
“Christian” (?) crusades gave to the Near 
East’ this set of mind» At any ,ratemtepre- 
vails and the result is that everywhere a 


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defensive, self-protective attitude is assumed 
the moment that religion is referred to. 
Consequently, religion cannot get a fair 
hearing until this attitude is removed. 


So we say to the student, “We have come 
from America to give you a number of 
things which we have found useful. Some 
of these values lie in the sphere of chemistry 
and physics; but some of them are in the 
sphere of moral and religious ideals. Come 
in and let us tell you about them. Of course, 
if you do not find them useful, you do not 
need to appropriate them. Take them or 
leave them. But we have found them very 
useful in individual, social and national life 
and we want to tell you about them.” 


Thus, our daily chapel or Assembly was 
originally decided upon by a vote of the 
students of our first enrolment, fifty per 
cent Moslem, who were asked whether they 
didn’t believe such a daily gathering both 
reasonable and desirable. They voted 
Bay. x. 


But some one protests that our Assembly 
and classes of moral and religious study— 
two periods a week—are compulsory. They 
are. So is our chemistry and physics and 
botany and physical culture. To this last 
especially some boys make objection, but 
we require attendance just the same. So is 
it with our religious subjects. But the spirit 
of the class room 1s not religious compulsion. 
It is an atmosphere of very free and unre- 
strained discussion and the assertion of the 


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most conflicting positions. When the prin- 
ciple of self determination is accepted for 
all classes and subjects, then attendance on 
religious instruction will also be made 
voluntary. Until then, it would be to play 
needlessly into the hands of the weather, 
or the counter influences of a beguiling 
campus, or the leadership of an occasional 
fanatical spirit, to make such attendance 
optional. The chief point, however, is the 
spirit of the class room. There, no spirit 
of religious compulsion is allowed. 


6. Another point about our religious 
policy is that we have found the study of 
Jesus, His life and His teachings, the most 
acceptable and the most dynamic material 
for all moral and religious education in a 
Moslem world. You would have laid that 
down for us beforehand, doubtless, as our 
aim and duty. But I! didn’t say we had it 
as an obligation, though | think we would 
recognize that. But I said we have found’ 
Him the best. He isn’t nearly so con- 
troversial as your theological statements; 
He is not controversial at all in that sense. 
Nor is He as vulnerable to Moslem attacks 
as Christendom is; He is not vulnerable at 
all. Also He is new, very new. To tell the 
truth Islam, for the most part, hasn’t heard 
of ‘Him. <. They: had® His name, lsujepus 
He was just one of innumerable prophets, 
and His character and teachings have been 
under an eclipse of ignorance. Probably 
most of our staff would set forth their 


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religious aim as was set forth in the answer 
which the Director of our Religious Work 
gave a year ago, As far as I am personally 
concerned | am trying to get students to 
face Jesus sincerely and, to work out the 
implications of such a facing in their own 
lives.” Men may differ in what they read 
into such a statement, some reading more, 
some less. It gives you, however, the central 
note of our instruction, the central message 
of our religious program. 


7. If Jesus Christ is the center of our 
religious program, transformation of char- 
acter is our immediate goal. Recently our 
entire staff spent two afternoons discussing 
our religious policy and program. The two 
points on which, through experience and 
conviction, all seemed agreed, were the fore- 
going point about Jesus as our supreme 
dynamic and the present one about trans- 
formation of character as our immediate 
objective. Along this line we can point to 
results. The student who. leaves us may 
still call himself a Moslem, but he is a 
very different type of man from the youth 
who came to us. His conception of God is 
different, his standards of personal morality, 
his appreciation of Jesus, his attitude to- 
ward women, his sense of honor and hon- 
esty, his open mindedness, his standards of 
service,—these all would make him _ un- 
recognizable if some method of ethical and 
spiritual photography were possible, before 
and after. 


Last year one of our students boarded a 
street car at its terminal. It was empty. As 
he slipped into a seat he found a bag. It 
contained jewels. The ordinary standard 
of morality would have allowed him to 
appropriate it. H®é took it over to the Police 
Station and turned it in. Its value was 
appraised at $5,000. The owner, frantic 
over his loss, finally recovered his property. 
The incident was so unique, so extradorinary, 
that all the papers of the city commented 
on it. One gave the student’s picture. Two 
wrote editorials inquiring whether this was 
the sort of morality that the American 
University at Cairo stood for. Our. institu- 
tion had that proud and embarrassed feel- 
ing that we imagine the American doughboy 
had when Foch pinned a decoration on his 
breast and kissed him on both cheeks. 


8. Our religious policy also recognizes a 
Christian life as an endless growth and a 
joyful adventure. 


Is not Christianity, too frequently, look- 
ed upon as a fixed and standardized thing, 
which you could convey to others like 
rations to a soldier, all packed up and 
sealed, complete? So mission schools are 
expected to report: “Ahmed was converted 
last month and this month he was baptized 
and- joined the Church. . Exit Abmed! 
Finished! 


But that is not our experience, at least 
not usually, and certainly not as regards the 
“exit” and the “finished.” Our Ahmed is 


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just like your boy John. He came to us 
95 per cent boy, perhaps 5 per cent Moslem. 
Last year he faced up to the standards of 
Jesus in respect to personal purity and some- 
thing gripped him. He told his faculty 
advisor that he wanted to “cut out” certain 
practices in his life but didn’t know how. 
This led to a long talk about God’s read- 
iness to help and how we get His help. So 
Ahmed said he’d make a stab at it. He 
made a start, fell down a number of times, 
was picked up and is still on the way. 


This year, Ahmed is raising a lot of ques- 
tions as to what Jesus means about life. In 
the class on social ethics, he is proving very 
controversial. He admits Moslem society 
is all wrong, but he doesn’t see that the 
Christian social and economic order is in 
keeping with the teachings of Jesus either. 
He agrees that in either case it 1s our bus- 
iness to right the wrong and he is very active 
in our work in the villages. 


Do you get the point? The Christian 
life is a seed. It grows gradually, “First 
the blade, then the ear, then the full corn 
in the ear.” And it grows with endless 
variation. We recognize in our religious 
policy that we can only set the young man 
on the Jesus-way. No man living can tell 
in what direction Christ will lead him, nor 
how far. But that’s the glory of it. The 
process is endless. There is no “finish.” 
His is the power of an endless life. 


All communications 


should be addressed to 


THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY AT CAIRO, 


1000 Land Title Building 


Philadelphia, 
Pa; 


Checks May be made 
out to the Treasurer and 


sent to the above address. 


